Residents of the Frasier Meadows Retirement Community can choose to participate in a multitude of activities.

There are gardening and golfing clubs, a woodworking shop, writing workshops, classes in yoga and tai chi and, if anyone is interested, a program to learn to make your own beer.

Don Moore, 84, is the community's official brewer and instructor. He helped start the program in the summer of 2010 in the old kitchen at Frasier Meadows, which today is a fully functional brewery complete with a stove, refrigerator, brewing equipment, bottle racks and everything needed to turn out a tasty batch of homebrew.

Illustrated step-by-step instructions are posted along one wall; another is adorned with a meticulously organized pegboard that holds equipment. Photos and beer-related memorabilia decorate the room, along with a display of colorful labels that Moore creates for each batch of beer, with names like "Charlie's Model A Malt," "Bob's Big Bang Brown" and "Ye Old Age Ale."

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"When they started work down there, I thought, 'I'm in a lot deeper than I anticipated,' " Moore says with a laugh. "But it's been a great way to meet people that I wouldn't have otherwise met, and I've made some good friends."

Moore estimates he's taught at least 30 residents to brew beer through the program -- including some with limited mobility and a woman who recently celebrated her 90th birthday. These senior brewers join the ranks of about 1 million Americans who homebrew their own beer, according to the American Homebrewers Association. The Boulder-based organization promotes the activity and also organizes the annual Learn to Homebrew Day, which takes place Saturday with events scheduled nationwide.

Moore began brewing beer in the early '90s when his son gave him home-brewing equipment for Christmas, shortly after Moore, a physician, retired from his pediatric practice in Boulder. He gained proficiency after becoming involved with Boulder homebrew club Hop Barley and the Alers.

"I really didn't know an awful lot about brewing, then I started going to the beer club and I became converted," says Moore, who recommends that anyone interested in brewing look into any nearby homebrew club. "The people there are very helpful and they'll likely even invite you home to brew with them."

Over time, Moore created an elaborate all-grain brewing system in the basement of his Boulder home. He even installed a whole-house fan to help clear the odor so it wouldn't bother his wife, Ann, who doesn't care for beer but encouraged her husband's hobby.

Moore also befriended many area brewers and would collect copies of their recipes, which many breweries are happy to provide, to make at home. He also helped friend Bob Baile, president of Twisted Pine Brewing Co., label bottles for many years in return for grain, yeast and other supplies and enjoyed experimenting with various ingredients and beer styles.

"Don's no slouch -- his beers are solid," says Brian Lutz, head brewer at West Flanders Brewing Co. and an accomplished homebrewer. "He used to smoke his own malts to make smoked beers and devised an elaborate system that allowed the smoke to get to the malt, but not the heat.

"That's what's so great about homebrewing. You can experiment with techniques and get creative with ingredients -- different malts and hops and things from the garden and from the spice cabinet. Homebrewing is really what fuels the whole brewing industry."

"Our CEO says it's the only program like this that he knows of," says Moore, although that might change after Frasier Meadow's brewers recently hosted a tasting for representatives of retirement communities nationwide who were in town for a board meeting.

"It's going to be interesting to see if they go back to their CEOs and say, 'We'd like to start something like that here, too,' " Moore says.

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